Geranium sanguineum - the type has more magenta/pink flowers. If the colour is fairly accurate on the photo this might be G sanguineum var. striatum which is a pale pink with darker veining. Here is a link that might be useful: G sanguineum var. striatum

Hi Ontnative, this message was not delivered to my e-mail as I requested, so I am lucky I just decided to try the forum. These plants are all in flower now and are setting seed. As you said, they are a bit weedy and tend to sprawl like a ground cover. BTW, I had great success with many of your seeds. You should see Helianthus Lemon Queen - it's over ten feet tall and is taking my garden over. I am expecting a full show in the coming weeks. Thanks again.

Geraniums are easy to propagate. Cuttings can be taken at any time. They can be water or soil rooted: medium can be moist sand, or a rich potting soil cut with some extra vermiculite for drainage. I find my plants get huge and rangy over the winter because I don't have enough 'large space" light for large containers, so I take cuttings in fall. The cuttings go into rooting medium in a shady outdoor space and are kept moist. By early October they are ready to be potted in 4" pots and brought inside and into the window for winter. I grow them like a houseplant in the Southerly windows all winter and just keep some pretty pots on hand for them to be showy in. By spring they are a good size (easily fit into a large 5.5" pot) and ready for going outside. Zonal geraniums don't do as well for me inside, and I don't grow them at home. We found at the store I worked in that they need better drainage and much more light and warmth. My "regular" geraniums are kept all winter at 58 degrees (or slightly warmer) - a barely heated house but in the window I over winter before frost. Geraniums are not frost tolerant.

Thanks to all of you for your ideas about this plant. I really wish I had a camera. I got excited reading ohiogdnr's dscription of kochia scoparia, but when I looked up photos of it online, it is nothing like the plant my mother gave me. I think I incorrectly described the leaves as alternate on the stem. On looking at it again, they are defintely directly opoosite each other. Each leaf is very thin and flat, by thin I mean not thick, not not wide. I had already looked up burning bush because it seemed to me that when my mother first gave it to me she called it that, or firebush (which I also looked up unsuccessfully) not live-forever. But it's not burning bush, so I asked her again, and that's when she and my stepfather said it is called live-forever. I really think they are just confused - they're in their 70's and were never great gardeners - and I know she also has a lot of autumn joy sedum, so I think she has remembered the name live-forever and associated it with the wrong plant. Of course I would never say that to her. Little Henry Itea has leaves with much more substance than this plant, and it also has a noticeable bloom, which this one lacks. I will try to get a photo with a disposable camera, and will post it on the perennials forum as well. Thanks again!